Bowerbird is pleased to present the Blackbox Ensemble at The Perch.

BlackBox Ensemble presents a program honoring milestones in American history, culture, and music: the centennial of pioneering American composer Morton Feldman and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. The program pairs works by Feldman with Elliott Carter’s “A Mirror on Which to Dwell,” settings of Elizabeth Bishop poems written in 1976 to honor the United States bicentennial. In dialogue with these works is Tania Leon’s “In the Field,” a song cycle setting of poetry by Carlos Pintado reflecting on the historical landmarks of Philadelphia which, in the words of the composer, “reflects the love and respect we all feel for the multiple and diverse communities coming together to create a nation.”

PROGRAM

Morton Feldman: Four Songs to E.E. Cummings
Morton Feldman: For Franz Kline
Tania Leon: In the Field
Elliot Carter: A Mirror on Which to Dwell

Featuring Amber Evans, Soprano

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Described as “ambitious” by The New Yorker, the New York City–based BlackBox Ensemble creates immersive, interdisciplinary, and site-responsive performances that engage deeply with classical traditions while reimagining them through contemporary lenses, opening space for new ideas, collaborations, and ways of listening.

BlackBox has presented work at leading museums, festivals, and performance spaces across the U.S., including the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, The Whitney Museum, Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival, National Sawdust, Roulette Intermedium, the Clark Art Institute, the Noguchi Museum, and PS21. The ensemble has toured nationally and held residencies at universities including NYU, University of Chicago, Penn State, George Washington University, UC Davis, University of Richmond, University of Michigan, University of Florida, and San Francisco State University, among others. Recent highlights include a three-performance run of Speculative Listening: The Sonic World of Julius Eastman, a program exploring Eastman’s influences curated by Eastman scholar Isaac Jean-François in collaboration with Kyle Marshall Choreography, as well as The Sound of Space Between Us, a site-specific outdoor music and dance performance at the Clark Art Institute conceived by flutist Annie Nikunen.

Our name, BlackBox, comes from the many meanings the term holds. In theatre, a black box is a bare, flexible space—four dark walls that can transform into anything, creating an environment ripe for bold experimentation and intimate connection. In science and technology, a black box is a system with known inputs and outputs, but the mystery of what happens inside makes it compelling. For us, we believe music, as a cultural medium, lives in that same space—enacting an ambiguous but vital relationship between artistic expression and social life, where sound, expression, and human experience collide in ways that can’t always be explained, but always resonate. Guided by the spirit of the theatrical black box, we create programs that invite risk, innovation, and connection, presenting contemporary classical music in ways that feel fresh, human, and alive.

Program support provided by the Amphion Foundation